by Emily March
“I understand.”
Then, before she was quite ready for it, he slipped off his pack, shoved it into the passage, and started crawling away from her. “Yikes.”
With his light rapidly disappearing, the darkness seemed to envelop her … as did the sense of being completely and totally alone. Hope swallowed hard, pulled her elbow pads from her pack, and put them on. She knelt at the entrance to the passage and peered inside. She couldn’t see a thing. Her voice squeaked, “Lucca?”
“The passage turns about eight feet in, Hope,” his voice echoed back to her. “I see the end of it about ten feet in front of me now. It’s big enough that you don’t need to push your pack. Come on in.”
“No trolls? Spiders? Snakes? Bears? Bats?”
“Four out of five aren’t bad odds.”
“Aargh.” Hope checked that her headlamp remained on tight and stretched out on her stomach. Taking a deep breath, she started crawling forward. “I am such a good friend,” she muttered after making the curve, getting a mouthful of dust. When Lucca called, “I’m out,” she took her first easy breath since his light had disappeared.
The effort seemed to take forever, but in reality, took only a few minutes. When she spied Lucca’s hand reaching to help her out of the tunnel, she grasped it like a lifeline. “Do me a favor?” he asked as she found her feet.
Warily, she replied, “What?”
“Keep your face toward the wall while I light the lanterns. I want to see your expression when you first see the chamber.”
That’s easy enough. “Okay.”
She heard him move clockwise, and slowly the wall behind her took on a golden glow. “Don’t peek,” Lucca said.
“I won’t.”
“Now, close your eyes.” His fingers popped the clasp on her chin strap, and then he lifted the hard hat off her head and said, “Thank you for sharing this with me today, Hope. You’ve made the day bearable.”
Then he leaned down and pressed a gentle kiss against her lips. “Now, open your eyes. Welcome to the dragon’s lair.”
She did and, immediately, her eyes rounded in wonder. “Oh! The walls sparkle. And they look like scales. And … oh … look at the ceiling! Stalactites.”
“Definitely cool.”
Hope turned around in a slow circle, her smile filled with delight. Glistening greens and vibrant blues, golds, and pinks. She gasped aloud when she saw the drawings. “Oh, wow. Lucca, look. Cave paintings. I wonder how old they are? Do people know about them?”
“Apparently, Cam explored this cave when he was a boy, but if people in town knew about it, they forgot it. He remembered it sometime last summer. He told Zach he’s given permission to researchers from CU to begin a study next spring.”
“This is the coolest thing I ever …” Hope’s voice trailed off as she turned a little more and brought her gaze from the ceiling to the floor. “Oh.”
“Pretty impressive, isn’t it?” Lucca asked, his voice ripe with amusement.
“I … um … well.” Hope pursed her lips, holding back a laugh as she studied the stalagmite rising from the cave floor. It was five feet tall and bore a startling resemblance to an erect penis. Then, because her mouth still tingled from his kiss and he looked so darned sexy standing there all dusty and outdoorsy, it seemed like the right thing to do. She turned a pointed stare to Lucca’s crotch, licked her lips, and said, “I’ve seen better.”
Lucca went to full arousal in seconds. He took a step toward her asking, “Do I take that as a compliment or a challenge or an invitation?”
She backed up a step. “We’re in a cave, Lucca.”
“Yeah. It’s private. It’s primitive. We wouldn’t be the first people to be naked in here.”
“Why do you say that? Is there cave-painting porn on the walls or something?”
“No, but there’s a sleeping bag and a nice thick quilt. A bottle of champagne and a big box of condoms.”
“What? I thought you said you haven’t been here before.”
“I haven’t. It’s private property, though. Cam and Sarah’s private property. And, Zach might have mentioned bringing Savannah here.”
Now she gaped at him. “So … this is what, the Eternity Springs version of Lover’s Lane? Guys get together and talk about scoring next to the giant penis?”
“Actually, that talk is usually about scoring with the giant penis.”
That made her laugh, so Lucca took another step closer. “And don’t lay all the blame at the guys’ feet. I think Zach might have said that the champagne was Savannah’s idea.”
“Zach ‘might have said’ quite a lot,” she replied. “We’ve had one public date, Lucca. How have I acted to make them assume …”
“I’m family. It’s not how you acted. It’s how I acted.” He caught her hand and brought it to his mouth, pressing a kiss into her palm. “You are different for me, Hope. You are special.”
“You’re trying to seduce me.”
“Well, sure.” He slid a hand around her waist and pulled her against him. “That doesn’t mean I’m not speaking the truth.”
She rested her hand against his chest, not stopping him, but not encouraging him, either. “Lucca, I came to you when I was desperate. I need to know … I know that today is … not that it’s a problem. I just want to know … is that what this is? Escape?”
“No, Hope. It’s not. Escape is the last thing on my mind, the last thing I want. I am exactly where I want to be, with whom I want to be with.” He nuzzled her hair, inhaling the citrus scent of her shampoo, and nibbled at her ear. “I want you, Hope Montgomery. Tell me that you want me, too.”
“Oh, I want you, Lucca Romano.”
Despite the cool air of the cavern, the heat between them ratcheted up. Still playing with her hair, he whispered against her neck. “How about we take this movie script from PG to R?”
She laughed while wrapping her arms around him. “Somehow, I don’t see you stopping at R. You’re a triple X guy all the way.”
When her hand slipped down to caress him beneath a layer of denim, he hissed in pleasure. “Cave porn. I like it.”
Lucca knew that this time, she was giving herself to him. This time it would be without pain, without tears, without regret. This time she was inviting his touch, his body. Not demanding or needing it.
He reveled in the knowledge and in her expression: the glow in her eyes, the way her body moved toward his and melded into him as if created just for that space. Pulling her into his arms, he kissed her deeply, the action a trigger for them both.
The fire ignited, their clothes were shed, their bodies connected. Hope responded with an appetite that nearly drove Lucca to the edge at first thrust. Her smooth skin, her passion, her soulful eyes … she took his breath away.
As he made love to her, a rare feeling of possessiveness coursed through him. Hope made him feel things that he’d never felt in his entire life, and instinctively he knew it was more than he’d bargained for. As her voice echoed around them with the sound of his name, Lucca let himself follow her into the sweet bliss.
Clutching her close, he realized that whatever it was that had brought them together initially—empathy, sadness, shared tragic history—what they had right now was damned near perfect.
He kissed her tenderly and smiled at her tearful expression. She knew. Somehow, she knew it. Whatever this was between them, she clung to it, too.
Hope trusted him with her secrets, and he’d done the same. That had connected them, body and soul. Beyond that, Lucca didn’t know.
Yet, lying on the cave floor with her sprawled and spent atop him, Lucca was certain of one thing: Hope Montgomery was light to his dark.
He couldn’t stop touching her, stroking his hand up and down the silky skin of her back. He was exhausted. He’d slept fitfully the night before, and facing the cave had drained him more than he’d anticipated or admitted. But he’d done it. He’d actually enjoyed the experience once he’d gotten past those first cou
ple of minutes and decided that he wasn’t going to wig out. Having Hope with him had made all the difference. She hadn’t been able to hide her lack of enthusiasm for caving, yet she’d never hesitated to face the challenge.
He learned so much from her. The woman was a teacher in ways she didn’t begin to realize. How lucky he was to be spending this day with her. Last year … No. Don’t think about it.
But by then he’d cracked open the door, and the memories came rushing back. The laughter, the music. The dog. The stupid dog.
Mewling. He hears mewling. The fog clears from Lucca’s brain. The kids. Gotta get the kids. He reaches for his seat belt release. The van has come to rest on the driver’s side, so he holds himself off the unconscious man. He looks behind him and sees … a nightmare.
Oh, God, he prayed. Help us.
He assesses. Directly behind him, Alan’s head is crushed, his open eyes flat. Seth is bleeding profusely from a shard of something in his leg. In the next seat, Reed is sobbing and pulling on the handle to the van’s sliding door.
Seth moves, reaching for the mewling dog, and blood spurts like a geyser.
“Lucca?”
Hope pressed a kiss against his chest and pulled him out of the nightmare. “You’ve gone tense.”
She was right. His throat had gone tight. His teeth were clenched. His jaw had a thousand pounds of torque in it.
She ran her hand up and down his arm. He closed his eyes and willed his muscles to relax. He breathed deeply, inhaling her scent, and concentrated on the sensation of having her warm, naked body pressed against his. After a moment, he cleared his throat. “I’m okay. I was just thinking. About you.”
She lifted her head and frowned at him. “And thinking about me made you tense?”
“Thinking about you makes me hard.” He tugged her up so that his mouth could reach hers. He kissed her hard and quickly, then cradled her head against his chest. Against his heart. “Thinking about you fills me with awe. Your strength humbles me, Hope. I’ve been running from my monsters. You don’t run. You face your biggest terrors head-on. If I were in your shoes, I couldn’t have borne to be around children. What do you do? You surround yourself with them.”
Light from the lamps flickered in her caring eyes. “Don’t be so hard on yourself. Remember, I have three years more of recovery than you do. I didn’t rush right into a kindergarten classroom the day that Holly was taken. You are conquering your fears. I’ll bet that’s what this trip has been about, hasn’t it? It was a test of some sort. Like the gym. You’re in a gym these days, coaching. It may have taken time, but you did it.”
She had a point. Lucca also knew that if not for her, he’d still be hiding away.
“Have you been claustrophobic since the accident, Lucca?”
“At times, yeah.” Enclosed places made him feel trapped and out of control. He couldn’t shake the sense that disaster was about to occur any second.
Hope lifted her head again, and those big brown eyes of hers stared solemnly into his. “Want to talk about it?”
He stared up at the stalactites hanging from the roof of the cave. Wrapping one of her silky, burnished curls around his finger, he began to speak. “It doesn’t always happen. I noticed it first when I flew to Mexico last summer. Longest plane ride of my life. That’s the reason why I didn’t come home for so long. I couldn’t make myself get on a plane. Did all my traveling by car or boat.”
He exhaled a heavy breath. “When the van rolled, the impact crushed the doors. We were trapped. I could smell gasoline and I thought we’d burst into flames any second.”
“Oh, Lucca,” Hope whispered.
“It was … awful. I’d let Seth bring a dog along. A puppy. During the accident the dog was thrown around. You could see that he’d been … broken … and Seth … Seth …” Lucca closed his eyes. “It was so random. He didn’t have a scratch on him except for the shard of metal that had punctured his thigh. It nicked an artery. I tried to stop it, to clamp off the bleeding, but I knew it was futile. He bled out right in front of me and I couldn’t … The whole time Seth held that crying puppy, crooning to him. They died within a minute of each other. The silence in the aftermath … it haunts me.”
“That’s why you reacted the way you did with Roxy’s puppies,” she said softly.
He shrugged. His thing with dogs was humiliating, and he didn’t like to think about it. He’d loved dogs before the accident. “Thank God for cellphones. We were able to call for help. Still, it took two hours for them to get to us and get us out.”
Two long, endless hours trapped with the dead, injured, and traumatized students for whom he was responsible while the fear of explosion hung over them.
He had to live with that memory for the rest of his life—live with the knowledge that his ego and pride had brought them to that point. “Guilt eats at me.”
“It shouldn’t.” Hope rose up on her elbows. She gazed down at him, her eyes filled with tender sorrow. “I understand, believe me. It was a terrible, horrible thing, but it was an accident.”
“I know, but that doesn’t seem to matter.”
“Then think about this. You kept your head when it mattered. I remember the news reports. I remember how steady and supportive you were for your team and their families. Those surviving boys loved you.”
“And the dead ones … are dead.”
“It was an accident. It’s not your fault.”
How could he make her understand? “For two hours that dog stared at me with flat, lifeless eyes. Accusing eyes. Now … hell.” His voice cracked a little as he confessed. “I’m afraid of dogs, Hope.”
“Oh, Lucca. No, you’re not. You’re wounded.”
He whispered the words, “I can’t forget.”
“Of course not. You won’t forget. You never forget. But you can heal. It takes time, but it does happen. It is happening. You’re coaching. You brought me to a dragon’s lair to face your fears, didn’t you? That’s such a lesson for me. You inspire me.”
Her words made his heart swell and pressure build at the back of his eyes. He attempted to avoid the total humiliation of tears by clearing his throat and quipping, “I brought you here to get laid. Pretty smart, huh?”
Hope didn’t let him get away with that. “Stop it. Listen to me. I want you to hear what I’m saying.” She cupped her hand against his cheek and stared deeply into his watery eyes, her own eyes damp with tears. “You are a good man, Lucca Romano. Accept that. Believe it.”
A single tear escaped his eye and trailed slowly down his temple. Hope leaned forward, kissed it away, and whispered in his ear. “I think I’ll get you a dog.”
TWELVE
On a Saturday morning ten days later, Hope awoke with a smile on her face and a naked man in her bed. Not just any man, she thought as she stretched slowly like a satisfied cat, but Lucca Romano, the oh-so-hot, been-on-the-cover-of-GQ-magazine former professional ballplayer who liked to show off his athleticism in bed. If a small-town kindergarten teacher was going to have a fling, she couldn’t do much better.
Despite the fact that they’d shared each other’s secrets, Hope had no expectations that this was anything more than a fling. Nothing had changed. Lucca was still a short timer in Eternity Springs, and she told herself that that suited her just fine—that she didn’t want more than friendship and a fling. Honestly, after her disaster of a marriage, she couldn’t imagine ever wanting to travel that road again.
“Good morning,” rumbled the deep, sexy voice next to her ear.
“Good morning.”
He cuddled her against him. “You know, my mother likes to wax poetic about how beautiful the sunrise is over the mountains. I have to say that when it comes to beautiful sights in the morning, sunrise in Eternity Springs takes a backseat to you.”
She could have said the same thing. Instead, she offered to cook him breakfast, and interest lit his eyes.
“I’m starved. Breakfast would be great.” But when Hope rose and reache
d for the robe lying draped across the iron footboard of her bed, he shot out a hand and grabbed her wrist. “How about an appetizer first?”
She grinned when he tugged her back into bed, and she tumbled on top of him. As he rolled her onto her back, a phone rang. His phone, she realized upon identifying the ringtone. She didn’t have “Hell on Heels” on her cell. “Damn,” he muttered. “That’s Gabi. I’d better answer. She wouldn’t be calling if it wasn’t important.”
Gabi was still away on her dog-sitting beach vacation and not due back until the middle of the following week. Lucca fished his phone from the pocket of the jeans he’d left lying on the floor, his expression tense. He answered saying, “Gabi? Are you okay?”
Hope watched him closely, and when he visibly relaxed, she did, too.
“No, I don’t know what she’s doing today,” he spoke into the phone. “But I don’t mind picking you up. What time, again?” He listened for a moment, then said, “Sure. See you then.”
After disconnecting the call, he explained. “She’s on a layover in Atlanta. The Thurstons cut their trip short, so she’s coming home early. Mom said she couldn’t pick her up at the airport, so I’m going to do it. How about Mexican food?”
“For breakfast?” Mentally, she reviewed the contents of her pantry and fridge. She’d been thinking bacon and eggs, but she could do huevos rancheros.
“A late lunch. Gabi’s plane gets in at four. Zach has been singing the praises of a Mexican restaurant in Gunnison.”
“Gloria’s,” Hope said. “I’ve been wanting to try it.”
“Now’s your chance. Or did you have plans for the day?”
Hope thought about her schedule. “I have some errands I planned to do this afternoon. If it’s not too domestic for you, we could make a couple of stops in Gunnison and I could get it all done there.”
“Perfect. Now …” He sank back down onto the bed. “Where were we?”
“Kiss me, caveman, and I’ll show you.”
By noon they were on the road to Gunnison. Almost before they’d reached the Eternity Springs city limits, Hope found her eyelids getting heavy. She stifled a yawn and gave her head a shake to keep from nodding off. Lucca noticed and asked, “Sleepy?”